RoFICoM - First Open-Hardware Connector for Metamorphic Robots

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Authors

MRÁZEK Jan BARNAT Jiří

Year of publication 2019
Type Article in Proceedings
Conference 2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Informatics

Citation
Web https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8968167/media#media
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IROS40897.2019.8968167
Keywords RoFI; metamorphic robots; connector
Description We present RoFICoM, a new retractable connection device that allows for mechanical, electric, and data communication connection between separable robotic modules. The device is intentionally designed to be used in lattice-type metamorphic robots, however, its applicability is much wider. The main novelty of our solution lies primarily in a new unique flat design and spatial compactness of the connector. With a flat connector, much more space is left for the body of a robotic module in the structure. Moreover, the connector is also fully self-contained device with well defined mechanical, electrical and data interfaces, hence it can be easily embedded in various robotic solutions. Our RoFICoM connector is easy to produce, it is open-hardware and free for non-commercial use. In the paper, we give construction details and report on a couple of experiments we performed to demonstrate key features of the connection achieved with two RoFICoM devices.
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